Opening whistle blows on fall sports

The wait is over, and so is the summer, as the fall sports season officially began for all teams on Thursday.

For some teams, it was the first day of a new coaching era.

For others, it was an initial step in a race for the top of the standings.

With a lack of rain, field conditions are a concern for some, and not having a game field is a concern for another team.

Almost all athletes do some sort of summer training for their sports. Few sports have an actual team league as well structured as the Fast Break Summer Field Hockey program.

Oakmont Regional won the league title this summer and not only are the athletes in shape, motivated, and already have team chemistry, but now they are antsy to get the all important varsity season started.

"We started this morning at 7 a.m., and there was definitely a good positive vibe going," Oakmont Regional field hockey head coach Leanne Roy said. "I would absolutely attribute that to their high coming off of the summer league. The girls are really prepared for the season, and I'm really excited for the season because they had great focus this morning."

The drought has taken a toll on some local fields. For golf in particular, the condition of the grass is a huge factor.

The Leominster golf team, which is coming off of a year with its lowest team scoring average since 1998, needs some strong course conditions to continue the trend it started last year. Lucky for the Blue Devils, Gardner Municipal Golf Course is in good shape.

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"I played a couple of courses throughout the region this summer, and Gardner Municipal is as green, if not greener, than any course I played," Leominster head coach Daryl Robichaud said. "That's a credit to their staff. We're excited to start the season."

Lunenburg High is in the process of replacing its turf field, meaning the first half of the boys' soccer season will be on the road.

The soccer team is particularly lucky in the juggle to find practice space, as it opened practice on a nearly finished grass field in front of the school on Massachusetts Ave.

The field has an irrigation system and is a little short of the preferred size of 88-by-55-yards, but things could be a lot worse.

"One of the three new fields is 90 percent complete," Lunenburg head coach Mike Gutzler said. "Other than being a little short, that field worked out well for us for the first day of practice. The condition is absolutely perfect. It's probably the best field we've played on for the first day of practice since they put in the turf."

Local football players got a little bit of a head start on the other sports, as they started their season last Friday. For the Monty Tech football team, not only do the Bulldogs have high expectations this season, but they also welcomed in a new head coach.

Anthony Secino rose from the assistant ranks to the head coaching job after head coach Matt Sallila announced his early retirement in the offseason. With virtually all of the assistants from last year in place, things are not looking too different for the Bulldogs.

"Very little has changed, and we're not reinventing the wheel at this point," Secino said.

"I'm adding my own touch to it all, but the staff is a very capable staff and know what they're doing. We work well together, and things are pretty much the same."

After missing the playoffs by just one point last season, the Bulldogs pulled off a huge winning streak, culminating with a Vocational Bowl Championship, expectations are as high as they have ever been at Monty Tech.

"In every season you need things to break right and hope to stay injury free," Secino said.

"They broke right last year for us, but we're focused at one day at a time. The kids know there are expectations there for us, and we're not going to shy away from them, but that said, I tell them every day that we haven't won a game this year, yet."

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